Judge combines 5th circuit cases involving Summit Carbon Solutions

Several of the civil lawsuits involving landowners and Summit Carbon Solutions in the 5th Judicial Circuit have been combined.

This includes the civil cases filed in Brown, McPherson, Edmunds and Spink counties. While four of the lawsuits were filed by landowners against Summit Carbon Solutions, two are civil lawsuits filed by Summit Carbon Solutions against landowners in MicPherson and Edmunds counties.

Following a court hearing Monday in Aberdeen, the lawsuits were officially combined and a Nov. 1 court hearing date has been set.

More:Summit Carbon Solutions seeks ruling to prevent South Dakota landowners from stopping surveys

In June, a group of McPherson County landowners represented by Brian Jorde, an attorney with Domina Law Group in Omaha, Nebraska, filed a lawsuit against Summit. It alleges a state law allowing companies to survey private land without consent is in violation of both the South Dakota and U.S. constitutions.

Under the law, companies that have applied for a permit with the PUC can survey land without consent as long as a 30-day notice is provided to the landowner. That should be unconstitutional, the McPherson County landowners believe.

They also filed for a preliminary injunction, which would essentially stop Summit from surveying until the lawsuit is settled. Since that initial lawsuit, more civil suits were filed in several other counties, some of which are in the 5th Judicial Circuit.

Judge Richard Sommers, who is presiding over the cases in the 5th Circuit, confirmed the cases were consolidated because they were all in the 5th Judicial Circuit and that the November hearing date is to determine the injunction request.

Other civil lawsuits are pending in Beadle, Minnehaha, Lincoln and Lake counties. 

But several other civil lawsuits were filed this month by Summit Carbon Solutions against landowners in 11 more counties that include Beadle, Lincoln, Spink, Brown, Clark, Codington, Hamlin, Hand, Hyde, Kingsbury, Miner, Edmunds and McPherson.

Summit is seeking state permission to build a carbon sequestration pipeline across eastern South Dakota. It would allow carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants to be captured and stored permanently underground in western North Dakota.

More:For Glacial Lakes Energy, joining Summit Carbon Solutions' pipeline plan means staying competitiveI

In its lawsuits against landowners, Summit seeks a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. It asks the court to declare that the company has a right to survey and inspect the land and for a court order that would prevent the landowners from denying that.

Declaratory judgment essentially asks the court to resolve any legal uncertainty, while injunctive relief sought is to prevent landowners from denying Summit access. The Iowa-based company is not seeking any money.

Summit applied for a permit from the PUC earlier this year. The pipeline would go through several South Dakota counties and five states. Carbon dioxide emissions from 32 ethanol plants, including seven in South Dakota, would be piped to North Dakota. That would allow the ethanol plants to sell their product in states with low carbon fuel standards. 

The pipeline would be more than 2,000 miles and cost an estimated $4.5 billion.